


Ain't No Mountain High Enough

by megaotaku98



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: A LOT OF DIALOGUE, AU, Flirting, Fluff, M/M, Meet-Cute, MinChan rise bitch, Minho's fear of heights, Phobias, hand holding, mountain climbing, side BinSung, this is...so gay and soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-26
Updated: 2018-09-26
Packaged: 2019-07-17 17:52:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16100747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/megaotaku98/pseuds/megaotaku98
Summary: Minho faces his fear...and meets a cute boy in the process





	Ain't No Mountain High Enough

**Author's Note:**

> This is very soft compared to my last fic LMAO  
> My fourth MinChan fic tho wow!!! At this rate I'm going to take over the tag >:)  
> also this is unbeta'd because I'm good enough at grammar to not always need one (hell, I'm a beta myself)

In Minho’s defense, it seemed like a good idea at the time. After all, the best way to get over your fear was to face it head on, right?

 

Wrong.

 

“You’re a dumbass, Lee Minho, why did you decide to climb up a mountain??” he asked himself, staring up at the sky because if he were to look anywhere else he would be able to see just how high he was.

Climbing up had been barely manageable, but now he needed to climb back _down_.

And the pathway down had several spots looking over a sheer cliff, places where you could see just how far up you were, how easy it would be to fall to your death.

No. Thanks.

Except, Minho couldn’t exactly stay at the top of the mountain. It was unsafe and he was already barely keeping his panic levels in check.

Might as well get it over with.

It was a good thing he started the hike super early, because at the rate he was walking down-very small baby steps-it was going to be way past nightfall when he reached the foot of the mountain. Being on a trail was dangerous at night, due to the wildlife. But Minho would choose 12,000 mountain lions over a 12,000 m elevation any day.

One foot forward. Another foot forward. Another foot forward. Don’t look over the edge. Don’t look over the edge. Don’t look over the- ohhhh shit that was a _long_ way down.

All sense of calm completely flew out of Minho’s mind, and he backed himself as far away from the edge as he could with a panicked yell, stumbling over loose cobble sized stones and falling on his butt.

Other hikers gave him weird looks as they passed by, but Minho was mainly focused on trying to control his breathing.

This was the worst idea he’s ever had in his entire life.

 

“Um, hey, are you ok?” a voice called out to him.

Minho looked up into the face of a stranger, who was leaning down towards him with a hand outstretched.

The way the sunlight framed his silver curly hair from behind made him look more like angel.

“Hello? Are you hurt somewhere, do you need help?” the handsome stranger asked, and Minho realized he had been staring for a probably creepy length of time.

“Um-well-not really. I’m, uh, deathly afraid of heights…” Minho admitted, feeling even more embarrassed. He was so _lame_ and now the cute boy knew about it.

Cute stranger opened his mouth. Then closed his mouth. Then opened and closed it again.

“And you decided to climb a mountain? Why would you do that to yourself?” he questioned, “not to be rude, but that seems a bit counterproductive.”

“You’re supposed to face your fears, so I was trying that,” Minho explained, “as you can see...it didn’t...work.”

Cute stranger still had his hand held out, and Minho reached over to grab onto it, letting himself be pulled back up onto his feet.

“Would you like some company then? It’s easier to face your fear if there’s someone to face it with, I think. I’m Bang Chan, by the way.”

Even his name was cute, what the hell.

“Lee Minho. And...actually I would really appreciate that. Did you climb the mountain alone as well?”

Chan rubbed the back of his neck shyly and smiled, revealing dimples. Freaking. Dimples.

“I came with a couple of my good friends, Jisung and Changbin, but they ditched me after we reached the top. They’re probably off somewhere eating each other’s faces, who knows. Not like it’s the first time, I’m rather used to it,” he said with a shrug.

Minho nodded along, but something made him pause- Jisung and Changbin were both male names.

“Your friends...are gay too?” he asked.

Chan looked pleasantly surprised, “oh, you like men?”

A little bit of confidence returning, Minho deliberately dragged his eyes up and down Chan’s figure, before replying, “I _love_ men.”

Chan blushed, and the only thing crossing Minho’s mind at that moment was ‘ _cute, god he was so so cute_ '.

“Um-so-anyways,” he continued, “shall we? Head down the path?”

Right. The mountain path.

Minho’s regained confidence from flirting shriveled back down, and he gulped.

“Yeah, the path, of course. Let’s get going, I guess.”

 

Chan’s hunch had been pretty correct-having someone else to walk with and talk to was a great distraction his horrible phobia.

As they conversed, Minho learned that Chan: was born in 1997, grew up in Australia, studied Music with a focus in production, had a sister and a brother, was extremely bisexual, and very (conveniently) single.

Minho shared that he was born in 1998 (“that makes me your hyung then!” Chan said), was a dancing major with a focus in hip hop, had two cats named Soonie and Doongie (“they’re basically my siblings because I don’t have any human ones”), and he was gay as hell.

It was all going phenomenally well! That is...until they reached a part of the trail that was out in the open on both sides, showing off the beautiful view- as well as show exactly how high up they still were. Sure, there were ropes on either side of the trail, but that did nothing to hide the sheer drop down to ground below.

Minho felt his breathing start to speed up and he grabbed onto Chan’s arm tightly, looking up at the sky like he did when he was at the mountain peak.

“Minho? Are you okay?” Chan questioned, voice filled with concern, “hey, hey. Look at me.”

A pair of hands gently grabbed the sides of Minho’s face, turning him so that he was looking directly into the other man’s eyes. He tried to focus but his gaze kept shifting to the side, causing him to start hyperventilating even more. They were so high up they were SO high up oh god he was going to trip and fall to his death he couldn’t do this he-

 

“Minho.”

His eyes snapped back to Chan’s.

“Keep your eyes on me, can you do that?”

Shakily, Minho nodded.

“Ok, we’re going to do this one step at a time, just keep looking at me. Don’t look right, don’t look left, and definitely don’t look down. Just look at me.”

“But, you can’t see where you’re going.”

“I’ve hiked this trail like, 7 times, I know it pretty well. Plus this part of the path doesn’t have any curves, I’ll be fine. You just focus on me, alright?”

“A-alright.”

And he did. Minho kept his eyes locked onto Chan’s as they moved slowly, one step at a time, across the trail. In his peripheral vision, Minho could see the trees getting closer, but the moment he tried to shift his gaze a little more Chan reminded him again to not look away.

Step by step, they made it to the trees, which shielded away the sight of the steep valleys.

Step by step, Minho gazed into those gorgeous brown eyes and fell a little bit in love.

Step by step, he wondered if Chan was feeling the same thing.

 

Once the outside was completely obscured by dense forest, Chan let go of Minho’s face, backing away with a bright smile.

“Hey you did it! I knew you could,” he said, and Minho smiled back.

“I wouldn’t have been able to if you hadn’t helped. Thank you, Chan-ssi,” Minho replied sincerely.

Chan blushed again, “aish, call me hyung, we’ve already bonded so much.”

Minho giggled, “ok, _hyung~_ ”

“Much better, Minho-yah~” Chan chuckled, “now let’s keep going, it’s not much further from this point.”

And thus, they continued walking, and continued talking, jumping from one conversation topic to another.

(“What do you mean you’ve never seen Dragon Ball?? That anime is a classic!”

“I’ll take your word for it.”

“Nope, not acceptable. We’re watching the first season, I have the box set.”

“Oh, are we? I hadn’t realized we reached that level of friendship already.”

“We held eye contact for like, 17 minutes, I’d be offended if we hadn’t reached that level.”)

At one point Minho tripped over a loose tree root, and Chan grabbed his hand to stop his fall. He stabilized himself pretty quickly, arm flapping wildly like he was a penguin. When Chan tried to pull his hand away again, Minho tightened his grip. This made both of them blush furiously, but they kept walking- this time with their fingers intertwining.

 

When Chan and Minho reached the end of the trail, the sun had set and the sound of crickets surrounded them on all sides. As they approached the visitor center, Chan was glancing around- no doubt looking for his two friends. When he finally saw them, his face lit up and he all but dragged Minho over to them (they were still holding hands).

“Jisung! Changbin! There you are!” Chan called out, and two boys sitting on a bench looked up at them. One had a roundish face with cute chubby cheeks-kinda like a squirrel; the other had an angular face with a very pointy chin.

“Channie-hyung! What took you so long?” said Pointy Chin.

“Yeah, when you told us to go ahead because you wanted to talk to ‘Cutie-Angel-Face’, we didn’t expect to be waiting this long,” added Squirrel Cheeks.

“‘Cutie-Angel-Face?” Minho asked, looking over at Chan.

Chan suddenly found the night sky _very_ interesting, but Minho could see by the light of the nearby lamppost that his ears were a comically dark shade of red.

“I, uh, have no idea what you’re talking about Jisung,” Chan stated, but his flustered face betrayed his denial.

(So Squirrel Cheeks was Jisung. Noted.)

“Bullshit,” Pointy Chin-Changbin by process of elimination- argued, “you didn’t even pay attention to the view at the top because you kept staring at him instead!”

“I’m guessing whatever flirtatious plan you had worked, since you’re holding hands," Jisung chipped in.

Minho raised an eyebrow, Chan’s blush spread from his ears to his whole face.

“You think I’m cute then?” he asked, mouth tilting upwards into a playful smirk, “is that why you helped me? Trying to pull a Prince Charming and sweep me off my feet?”

Chan’s eyes widened, and he stammered, “n-no! No- I mean, yes you’re very cute, but that’s not why I approached you. Well, it was part of the reason. But I did genuinely want to help, I mean you looked so scared, and-”

Minho pressed a finger against Chan’s lips, stopping him from saying anything else.

“I’m just teasing. You’re really cute too,” he said, adding a wink for that extra flirty flair.

“Gaaaay” Jisung called out, effectively ruining the moment.

“Yeah, get a room you two, gross,” Changbin added.

Chan shot a glare at the two, which shut them up, but it was also a little difficult to fully take him seriously, as his cheeks were still very pink.

He turned back to Minho and asked, “where did you park? I’ll walk you to your car.”

“I took the train actually, and walked the rest of the way.” Minho answered.

“Well then why don’t I just give you a ride home?”

“I live on the other side of the city. It’s fine, I don’t mind taking the train.”

“But it’s already dark outside, and walking alone is dangerous. I mean, it’s really no biggie, I’m already taking Jisung and Changbin home, what’s one more stop?”

Minho grinned, “it’s almost like you want to spend more time with me or something.”

Chan smiled back, “maybe I do. Maybe I also would like to get your number, so I can ask you out to coffee sometime.”

Minho pretended to think it over.

“Then..maybe I accept your offer,” he said.

 

And maybe Chan let Minho sit in the front seat and not-so-subtly reached over to hold his hand again.

And maybe Minho gave Chan a kiss on the cheek after they exchanged phone numbers.

And maybe...climbing that mountain wasn’t so bad after all.

**Author's Note:**

> You know the rules, if this sucks I'm sorry (no I'm not) if not leave a comment!!


End file.
